The Inspiration Of A Rain Dance

It was a typical school day in 1971. I was seven years old. I had just walked home from my neighborhood elementary school with all of the other children who lived on the same street as my grandmother. After school I would go to my grandmother’s house to change from school clothes into my “play clothes”.

While I rushed in the house, I overheard my grandmother talking with her neighbor who lived in the house next door. All of the children knew my grandmother’s neighbor as “Ant Bet”. Of course, she wasn’t a blood relative, but I grew up during a time where we practiced the concept of a village raising children. At the time, Ant Bet’s oldest daughter, Kathy, was my best friend but we told everyone that we were cousins.

I had planned to meet Kathy outside after we both changed and grabbed a snack. However, I slowed down a little so I could hear what my grandmother and Ant Bet were talking about.

I heard them saying that we needed rain. We lived in Florida and as you probably may know – it is very hot most of the time. Hot enough for my grandmother and Ant Bet to be concerned. I instantly thought of an idea and wanted to share it with them but remembered that children were not permitted in grown people’s business, so I kept the idea to myself and proceeded to change my clothes.

As soon as I met Kathy outside, I told her what I heard. I also told her what I thought we could do to help. We would gather all of the other children in the neighborhood that we knew, and we would do a rain dance – that’s what my plan was. Kathy thought it was an excellent idea, so we told all of our friends and told them to meet us in front of Ant Bet’s house.

This was it; everyone was in place. I led everyone by telling them to gather in a circle so we would dance around until it rained. Everyone agreed. We danced and danced until it actually started to pour down rain! We were astonished! And very happy – screaming, laughing, and running inside the house. It was one of the most inspiring moments in my young life.

It was some time after that day when I found out that the true rain maker was Ant Bet. She had overheard my plan when I was telling my friends about how we could help the adults by doing a rain dance. So, to encourage us, she stood on the roof of her house with a water hose and sprayed water down on us to make us believe that we had the power to make it rain.

I think about what this story meant to me as a 7-year-old girl, full of imagination, eager to assist others, and able to persuade others that they had an unbelievable power they could use to make a difference. And for a moment we did. All of us grew up with that same inspiration to pass on. Today, I continue to try to inspire others to tap into their own unique gifts and purpose and to encourage them to look for the miracles in life – big or small, through my work at InTouch Holistic, LLC Training and Development Services where we believe anything is possible when you think like there is no box.